Judge Rifkind Named Chairman of Jewish Theological Seminary Board

Judge Simon H. Rifkind was named chairman of the board of directors of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Alan M. Stroock, former board chairman, became president of the Seminary Corporation. The two appointments were announced today by Dr. Louis Finkelstein, Seminary chancellor, who described them as “part of a reorganization of the lay administrative structure of the Seminary.”

Speaking of his new position, Judge Rifkind said: “Several factors moved me to accept. First, I came to the conclusion that each man owes it to himself, at sometime in his life, to subordinate his personal affairs in order to do that which he regards as of supreme importance. I happen to believe that The Jewish Theological Seminary is an institution of such supreme importance.” He was also motivated, Judge Rifkind explained, by his “conviction that Judaism has endured, grown and blossomed, in the course of these many ages, through the efforts of institutions of learning like the Seminary and its predecessors.”

Alan M. Stroock has been a member of the Seminary’s board of directors for more than 25 years, and its chairman for the past 16 years. In the newly created post of president of the Seminary Corporation he explained that he will function in the day to day administration of the institution, thus enabling Judge Rifkind to “concentrate all his energies on the planning and developing of the Seminary’s proposed expansion and on enlisting the necessary lay support for that great effort.”